Operating a smartphone while patiently waiting for a bus, Canton resident Edwin Palmer is the kind of guy who helped the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority to a record-setting year in 2013.

After working a morning shift at the Piada restaurant in Jackson Township, Palmer was in SARTA's Belden Village Transit Center in the 4700 block of Whipple Avenue NW, Plain Township, waiting to catch his ride home.

"It is cheaper than putting gas in a car every week or every day," the 24-year-old said.

SARTA provided more rides last year than any year in its history. The total —2,691,025 — represents an increase of more than 32,000 from the previous year.

The area where Palmer was waiting is the service zone where SARTA saw its largest increase in ridership. Conrad attributes that to the heavy commercial activity of Jackson Township, plus the presence of Stark State College.

The bus agency's Route 120 bus goes through a portion of the Jackson Township retail and commercial area, and the campus with Stark State and the Kent State University Stark.

Ridership on Route 120 jumped about 9 percent — from about 91,000 in 2012 to 99,000 — in 2013.

"It is almost a third of our (yearly) increase," Conrad said. "It is one of the busiest routes we have."

SARTA's Route 81, which runs from its downtown Canton Cornerstone Transit Center to and from the downtown Akron transit center operated by Akron Metropolitan Regional Transit Authority, also stops at the Belden Transit site. That allows Stark State students from Akron to use the bus system.

"A lot of our students do ride SARTA," said Irene Motts, public relations officer for Stark State College. "We are having a lot of our students coming from Summit County. I would say in the last three years we have increased from 20 percent (from Summit County) to 28 percent."

ACROSS OHIO

Public transit agencies statewide are seeing ridership increases, according to Judith Will Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Public Transit Association.

"There is a trend, ridership is up," Will Fleming said. "People are taking public transportation because it is more economical than using a car. There are probably a lot of people that can't afford to drive a car."

Such is the case with another regional public transit authority, the Youngstown-based Western Reserve Transit Authority.

"Our ridership has gone up significantly over the past 12 months," said Jim Ferraro, executive director of Western Reserve Transit Authority. "We have had some significant months. Some months we are as much as 18 to 20 percent higher in ridership. We have some riders that are transit-dependent, which means they don't have many choices."

Page 2 of 2 - Another urban-based transit agency, the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, saw its ridership dip in 2013 after a period of growth.

"We had been (growing) until 2013," said Mark Donaghy, executive director. "Then we leveled out. We went down 2 percent by the end of the year. We had a couple good years after the recession. The economy kind of flattened out here."

STEADY GROWTH

SARTA changed from a Canton-area transit system to a countywide service provider in the late 1990s.

Ridership fees — the base fair is $1.50 per ride — represent one revenue stream for SARTA. There's also a 0.25 percent countywide sales tax voters renewed in 2011 for a five-year cycle.

The sales tax brings in "between $13 million and $14 million (annually)," Conrad said.

While the bus route serving Jackson Township may be a strong performer for SARTA, the steady has been Route 102. The 102 follows a straight path along state Route 172 between downtown Canton and downtown Massillon.

"It is the busiest one in the system," Conrad said. "I think we take 2,200 a day. It has a solid anchor on either end. A lot of people want to go to downtown Canton and downtown Massillon."

On some of the heavily traveled routes, SARTA has increased the frequency of trips.

"One thing we have been able to do is add some more trips on our busiest routes," Conrad said. "For example with the main trunk lines, instead of a trip every hour, some have a trip every half hour."

And ridership continues to grow.

"We have been seeing steady increases every year," Conrad said. "Public transit is kind of a cultural thing. It takes some time to get used to it. It just becomes more and more accepted."